As informant Windsage noted within the Cryptomundo’s comments section: I lived on the Pine Ridge reservation last year (2005). You would be hard pressed to find a single person there who doesn’t believe in the existence of Bigfoot. I personally heard police on the scanners, talking excitedly about sightings and pursuits of Bigfoot. No one in their right mind would dress up in a Bigfoot costume for fear of being shot and killed. Lots of hunters around there, lol, Lakota are well armed. Also, nobody has the money to be wasting on gorilla costumes…it’s the poorest county in America. Two of my relatives out there have seen Bigfoot. Its existence is commonly accepted.

Before the new incident is detailed, let’s first put these events in the context of what’s happening around there, bioecologically.

It’s Hot!

On July 30, some of the hottest temperatures in history were recorded for South Dakota. It was 100 degrees at Mt. Rushmore, 109 degrees at Rapid City, and the record for the state was at Maurine of 114 degrees.

There are fires raging throughout the area. Above is a photograph of a hillside fire was taken in Chadron, Nebraska, but serves as a good example of the tinderbox out there. The Pine Ridge Reservation is in southern South Dakota, just north of Nebraska.

If you look at the photo below, you can see red spots. They denote forest fires. The central part of the map is Wyoming. Over to the right is South Dakota. Barely visible as a smear of red is the indicator for the Rapid City fires, and off the map, apparently, are Pine Ridge Reservation fires. Informants have said the fires can easily be seen in the hills surrounding the area.

Wildlife Activity

Is the heat having an effect on local wildlife? Certainly, one result was clearly visible on Sunday, July 30, 2006. A young adult female mountain lion, appearing to be unnaturally thin, was sighted in Hot Springs, South Dakota, walking along the Fall River in the canal between the Braun Hotel and the Inn by the River motel at approximately 8 a.m. It was shot and killed.

Game, Fish and Parks Conservation Officer D.J. Schroeder told local media, “there was no immediate danger to the people from the lion due to its location in the canal, but I was concerned that if it left the canal, we may have other issues to deal with.”

This Hot Springs photo was contributed by Delbert Weiss to the media, and shows the extremely thin puma of July 30, before it was killed.

Hot Springs is about 40 miles west of the edge of the Pine Ridge Reservation, down Route 18 into the Black Hills.

Earlier in July, another thin mountain lion was also killed in this area of South Dakota.

Police scanners again picked up a new Bigfoot sighting. On August 1, 2006, one woman on the rez reported to police that her dog was barking and there was a distinctive bad odor in the air. This activity occurred between 2 and 2:30 a.m. When a police unit was sent to check out what was going on, a Bigfoot was sighted. An officer was then heard to yell out, “There he is,” followed by two howls and dogs barking like something was near by. No other activity was heard on the scanner through 6 a.m.

Donovan Lone Hill of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota shares with us that the local paper is now sending a reporter around to talk to people about the Bigfoot report (according to the reporter, based upon reading of these sightings in Cryptomundo).

While on August 2nd, various CBS television local stations have decided to turn their attention to the “skins-on-the-Bigfoot” video, an apparent hoax story coming out of Boggy Creek or Bottom Monster, Atoka County, Oklahoma, the events in Pine Ridge Reservation are compelling but do not appear in any media (except on Cryptomundo), to date.

About Loren ColemanLoren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013.

This is actually a more believable sighting now. I have more faith in Native American ledgends and the Words of native peoples than I do in our so called reporters. This one seems different. This could be the proof. Someone give the police a camera. Please. The nearby fires may be making these creatures expose themselves to danger. So how about some real proof like police mug shots

I thought we found a cure for TB with a shot in the rear. Maybe a booster shot is needed here. first kick anyone?

This sounds like it may be the best opportunity to gather some really conclusive evidence in a long time. The police dispatch tapes should be available under public records laws. That is if those laws apply on the reservation. It would be interesting to listen to the tapes. It doesn’t sound like the police have the dashboard cameras or any cameras for that matter. I really hope that the better researchers are on their way there now. It would be a shame to let this one slip away.

No. It DOES look like it, but what you take for the right rear leg is the tail curving back up, I believe. Almost looks like a Snow Lion tail. Looks VERY chunky, doesn’t it, and not at ALL like a Mountain Lion tail? The more I look at it, the more I’m amazed. That’s one emaciated cat.

The community’s collective belief in Bigfoot is an obvious double-edged sword. On the one hand, the profusion of sightings of an unknown creature would lead to a common sense belief in the creature. If enough people see a Lion stalking around where there should be no Lions, and agree that they have all seen the same thing, they will beleive the Lion is out there. On the other hand, if the belief in Bigfoot is already so entrenched in the community then strange happenings or sightings could automatically be attributed to Bigfoot even if there is a common explanation. If people believe there is a Lion stalking around, strange sightings of something large and cat-like would be attributed to a Lion.

In essence, the question is whether or not the belief in Bigfoot comes from sightings or whether the sightings are attributed to Bigfoot because of belief. In truth, it’s probably somewhere in between those two extremes where one reinforces the other.

An interesting story, nevertheless, especially considering what is going on in the environment there to explain the alleged creature’s activities.

I think what you guys are perceiving as two tails/extra legs is, in fact, just the rear right leg. Due to the emaciated nature of the animal, the leg is “sunken in” a bit, making it look odd, but it’s pretty clear to me that it just has 4 legs and a tail.

I think what you guys are perceiving as two tails/extra legs is, in fact, just the rear right leg. Due to the emaciated nature of the animal, the leg is “sunken in” a bit, making it look odd, but it’s pretty clear to me that it just has 4 legs and a tail.

I suppose you’re right, but what’s that laying along horizontally along its side? It has highlights, so it’s not sunken in, right?

I don’t see anything laying along its side. I still think that’s just part of the leg, where it attaches to the torso. The lighting and shadows are causing it to appear that there’s something there that’s not.

Now, see, this really burns my backside. Those cougars weren’t doing a blessed thing to any human. They have more right to be there than any one of our species. Throw the poor things a steak or two, not a bullet.

On a more positive note…I agree that Native American accounts seem more reliable than most media. All these sightings in such rapid succession…I must say, I’m inclined to think it’s a bear or two scared down by the fires. I’m not ruling anything out, mind, just seems rather likely.

well, he hit it right on the head, hot weather and fires. Always makes any of the animals go a little off. I say it that way only because obviously there hasn’t been this many reports at one time. just looking for food, cool place and safety

About the time the BF was sighted would have been a new moon, or slightly on the wax, which makes sense to move about, if you are an animal, not hoaxing human with relatively bad night vision.

I think what everyone is seeing on the lion is what mass she has left in the pair of ambulatory muscles in her leg, The two muscles needed to swing her leg forward and back. although #17 Jeremy Wells makes a good point about the aid of that weed..

There have been more reports of mountain lions in central South Dakota. The animals they follow for food are, surprisingly enough, moving away from the west where the fires are and heading east. It would only seem logical that the mountain lions would follow.

Finally, you are also correct that the local paper is sending a reporter to check out the Bigfoot allegations based upon what has been printed on this site. I live near the Pine Ridge Reservation and have sent the articles here to other people who live around here and near the reservation, and no one seems to know any stories about any supposed Bigfoots running around. But at least I can be quite sure that if they are around, they are headed east because of the fires, so I’m hopeful that maybe I too can spot one of these very soon.

Well I would like to say that I live near the Oglala rez and my mom is from Pine Ridge. I don’t know what is going on there, but it really should be taken as credible. I know and respect my culture. But when it comes to something like Bigfoot, you may hear many different things. Everyone on the rez has their own opinion about this creature. Some say its a sacred spirit that brings good luck, others say its appearence brings bad news. Then again others say its a dimensional creature. The point is that we all know something is there, we just don’t know what and why its here. Whether its a physical creature or spiritual being. Anyone can state the obvious and the apparent dubiety. But from an American Indian’s POV its usually taken as spiritual. With this being said, I honestly doubt the natives on the rez would want “notoriety” for something like this. In sense we are generally a private people. I’m not trying to persuade anyone to believe or disbelieve, I just wanted to state one’s point of view on the happenings. I live close and have been going back and forth (everyday) to the rez for the past several days. And yes I am worried that I might see something that I maybe don’t want to see just yet…

To add a couple more things:
1. Many people live in trailers, and if anyone knows trailers, the windows can be very high above ground.
2. Oglala Nation Fair/Powwow is going on this weekend, which means there is going to be a lot of people in PR. (Doesn’t seem like Bigfoot will be coming around anytime soon… but who knows?)
3. I’ve heard through the grapevine that some of the police officers went to ceremony to find out what to do about the Bigfoot situation. They said to anyone thats not scared to place food and tobacco out for the Bigfoot as a notion to “go away and leave us be”

I’ve read this about tobacco before, in Nobody Meets Bigfoot by Marian T. Place. Quite a pleasant read, if you need to kill a couple hours. Could this possibly be related (in a spiritual sense) to the Irish leaving cream and fruit on their doorsteps for the fae to keep themselves safe from mischief?